The Price of Trickery
by Twilight Hour
Summary: Demyx unleashes a goat upon the Castle That Never Was. Chaos ensues. Contains possible OOC and crack
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **Obviously, I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of its characters.

Anarix is the nobody of my OC, Raina. I've kind of started this story with her already established in the Organization, so I'm sorry for the lack of introduction. At the moment I'm working on a complete account of her time with the Organization, that will be of epic length when I've finished. Just bear with me. ~Twilight Hour

The first three chapters of this were originally published on Lunaescence.

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"DEMYX!!!" The cry echoed through the halls of the Castle That Never Was.

I rolled my eyes. "What has he done this time?"

"It is inconsequential," Vexen replied. "Now hand me the scalpel." The two of us were busy on the dissection of a failed replica, our third failed attempt in a fortnight. Secretly I thought that we had come as far as we conceivably could and, for the moment at least, I wanted to return to the drawing board. Vexen, however, was not to be daunted. He was devoting all of his energies to the clones; he hadn't even mentioned the experiments on my now slowly-returning memory that we had attempted during my early days with the Organization. At first I thought that he had lost interest in these experiments, or that he had simply dismissed the project as a failure. Now I had come to realise that he valued me more as a lab assistant than he did as a research specimen (although he would never admit it!) and I felt quite flattered by this. It felt almost as though he wanted to be friends with me, and I don't think Vexen had ever sought a companion before in his life.

I suppressed a small smile as I watched him slice the scalpel down the centre of his doppelganger's chest. It had disturbed me the first time I had watched this; not the procedure, but the fact that Vexen was technically doing his own autopsy. With one big difference, of course: the replica had had a heart. Or at least it would have had, if we could only get the thing to function properly.

The door of the laboratory flew open. "Have you seen Demyx?" asked a voice from the doorway, looking with disgust at the body of the Vexen-replica.

"The sign on the door says 'no entry', Number Eleven," Vexen said through gritted teeth. The unexpected intrusion had made him jump and drop the scalpel, and without thinking he plunged a gloved hand into the corpse's chest to retrieve it. "You have just contaminated a sterile research environment, and I--"

"Skip the lecture, old man," the newcomer said abruptly. Vexen looked furious at being interrupted by a junior member of the Organization.

"What do you need Demyx for, Marluxia?" I asked, looking up at him for the first time since he had entered. His cheeks were an even deeper shade of pink than his hair, and I wasn't sure if he had just gotten very angry or been crying.

"He..." Marluxia broke off and began again. "All my flowers, he..."

"Spit it out so we can get on with our lives," Vexen said roughly, his hand re-emerging from the clone's innards with a squelching sound. I took the scalpel from him, shaking the blood it was dripping onto the counter. Vexen began to clean his hands with a rag.

Marluxia took a deep breath. "I just went up to my rooftop garden to water my plants, and there was a goat wandering about the flowerbeds, eating everything! I've got no flowers left, just a load of stalks. I'm so mad right now - but it's nothing compared to how I'll be when I get my hands on that little--"

"What makes you think it's Demyx?" I asked, trying not to laugh at the image of the Graceful Assassin discovering his precious flowers had been eaten.

"Who else in this castle would go to the trouble of getting a *goat*?" Marluxia pointed out. "I bet he's been keeping it in his room, waiting for this opportunity!"

"Look, we've been in the lab all day," I said, handing Vexen the forceps. "I haven't seen Demyx since breakfast. But if I see him, I'll tell him you're looking for him, okay?"

"All right," Marluxia conceded, although he sounded far from it. "I'll leave you two to your little experiment."

"Close the door on your way out," Vexen called coldly after him.

No sooner had the latch clicked into place than there was a rustling sound coming from the supply cupboard in the corner. Now it was my turn to jump. Vexen didn't even blink. "Anarix, let Demyx out of there, would you?"

I looked at Vexen in astonishment. "You knew he was in there the whole time, didn't you?"

"I might have heard him slip in earlier," he admitted.

I couldn't help grinning as I opened up the cupboard. "I thought you didn't like - what was it you called it? - Demyx's childish behaviour."

"I don't," Vexen agreed. "But anything that gets that neophyte Marluxia's back up..." I'm sure he was glad he wasn't facing me, so I couldn't see him smiling at the thought.

"Thanks guys!" Demyx said as he climbed down from among the test-tubes. He was his usual, cheery self; being chased by a madman with a scythe didn't seem to phase him at all. "I knew he wouldn't really think Vexie would be hiding me."

"So you *did* set a goat to rampage through Marluxia's garden?" I asked.

Demyx smiled his cheeky smile. "Great idea, huh? I thought to myself, 'What would make ol' Marly really mad?'"

"Well you certainly succeeded," said Vexen. "Next time you try anything like this, though, leave us out of it. I may not like Marluxia, but I don't want to get dragged into your petty troublemaking, either."

"Don't worry Vexie," said Demyx. "I'll find another hiding place next time, promise."

"Demyx." Vexen called. Demyx was at the door by now. He turned back toward us, nodding to Vexen to show he was listening. "Throw that in the trash on your way out," Vexen threw him the blood-stained rag he'd wiped his hands with.

Demyx's nose wrinkled as he held the rag out at arm's length. "Eeew. The things I do for you two." He tossed it in the trash can and opened the laboratory door, waving to us over his shoulder. "Later."

We resumed the dissection in silence for a few minutes. I held open the chest cavity of the replica while Vexen probed about inside with various instruments. The heart would be removed eventually, its physiological properties stripped away so we could study its essence: the light, the darkness, and the nothingness between in which we resided. Vexen was convinced that the right combination of these three properties would yield a successful heart and thus a successful replica. I wasn't convinced. I thought that we should attempt a replication of a being that already possessed a heart before trying to create one for a Nobody's clone, which was what Vexen was essentially trying to do. He would say that it was all in the interest of research, but I knew that secretly he was as desperate to regain his humanity as the rest of them.

"How's the memory?" Vexen asked. "Are you remembering any more yet?"

"Bits and pieces," I replied. "Nothing concrete. I sort of get flashes of things - as if I've come in partway through something, and have to figure out for myself what I've missed. It really confuses me. I wish I had just one real memory to go on - something to hold on to."

"It'll come in time," Vexen promised. "After all, the Superior was able to perform the naming ceremony on you, so the memories must be in there somewhere, and if you--"

He cut himself off, looking around him as though he had heard something. I listened hard, and instantly knew what had broken his train of thought. From all around us, a whirring sound, getting louder as the sound got lower in pitch, as if someone had just pressed the off switch on a giant fan, or applied the brakes to the castle itself.

I looked at Vexen, who looked as confused as I felt. "What's happening?" I asked. Before he could answer, the lights in the laboratory flickered, then went out, and we were stood in the pitch black.

There was a split second of silence, then both of us screamed, "DEMYX!!!"


	2. Chapter 2

"Do you have a torch?" I asked, squinting through the inky blackness.

"No, of course not," Vexen snapped, obviously irritated at all the interruptions we were getting today. "There's a Bunsen burner somewhere - see if you can get it lit."

I stumbled through the darkness of the lab towards the store cupboard where Demyx had concealed himself. "Why did the lights go out?" I asked, groping blindly at the items on the shelves.

"You heard the noise," said Vexen. "That was the main power generator, stopping working. All power to the castle has been cut off."

I had managed to locate the Bunsen burner and started back across the lab to the gas supply. "Why would Demyx want to do that? It inconveniences him just as much as it does the rest of us."

"I don't think he did it on purpose," Vexen replied. "But I'm sure that a goat would find the main power cables a tasty follow-up to Marluxia's flower beds."

The Bunsen burner was lit now; its orange flame cast an eerie glow around the lab, throwing shadows all around. It was not ideal to see by, but it was better than being stuck in the darkness with Vexen - he seemed a little less irritable already now that there was some form of light.

"Now, there is a backup to the power system," Vexen said, thinking aloud, "But it requires someone to go down to the basement and start it manually."

"Okay, so what are we waiting for?" I jumped up and headed for the door. But no matter how many times I tried the handle, the door refused to open. It was if someone had glued it to the frame. "Uh, Vexen, I didn't know that the doors were electrically powered, too."

Vexen groaned. "They're not. It's the castle's security system. It must have activated itself when the power went out. We only expected something like this to happen during an attack on the castle, you see."

"So we're locked in? Great. Now what are we supposed to do?"

Vexen thought for a moment. "There's a ventilation system, connecting all of the rooms on the floor. It's probably big enough to hold you. See if you can crawl through it and contact any of the other members."

"What are you going to do?" I asked, eyeing up the ventilation shaft in the ceiling. I certainly wasn't relishing the prospect of climbing through miles of ducts.

"It won't hold both of us," Vexen justified, seeing the look of displeasure on my face. "Besides, the power system operates the temperature controls in the lab. I'm going to cast some of my ice magic on the replica before it starts to smell."

I let him get on with this while I clambered up on top of a table and pushed open the hatch that led into the vents. It took a couple of attempts for me to manoeuvre myself up into the ceiling. Before I had moved six feet away from the opening into the lab, all trace of light had disappeared. It felt very disorienting, crawling along in the pitch black. I ran my hand along the wall, to make sure that it hadn't vanished into the darkness along with the rest of the world. I only reached a break in the path twice; on both occasions I turned right, making a mental note of this in case I had to turn back.

After an age of silence, I began to hear faint voices echoing up the shaft towards me. I was still too far away to hear what they were saying, but I could hear several voices, all talking over each other. I headed towards the sounds, which sounded more and more panicked as they drew nearer.

As I reached the next grate, I could pick out individual voices, although it was still pitch dark beneath me. "It's gone to your left - no, your other left!" "There's one behind me, I can hear it." "Something just hit me ... and it had better have been one of them, or you're finished!" All of this was accompanied by thudding and scraping and scuffling noises.

I wasn't completely sure of what was happening, but I was instantly alert. I slipped my fingers through the grate of the hatch and pulled it open, having to twist myself around so that I would jump down feet first. I didn't like jumping down here - there was no way I could brace myself for the impact of landing as I had no idea how far I had to fall. It was better than hovering here in the ceiling all day, though, I thought as I took the plunge into the darkness.

I had expected to land face first on the floor, but something broke my fall before I reached it, and I took it down with me. No, not a some*thing*, but a some*one* - I could feel the unmistakable material of an Organization coat, and hear the cry of surprise as I jumped whoever it was. "One of them's squashed me!" they cried from beneath me.

I recognized the voice. "Demyx? It's Anarix. What's going on?"

"It's the Dusks - they've gone mad; they're attacking us," Demyx explained.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "It's pitch black in here, how do you know it's them?"

"We had a torch," Demyx replied, "But Marluxia dropped it."

"Well if your water forms hadn't ambushed *me* instead of the enemy, I wouldn't have, would I?" Marluxia retorted from somewhere off to the right.

Demyx sighed. "Sure, it's my fault. Just because I'm short you think you can all blame me for everything."

I clambered off Demyx and began to scramble around on my hands and knees. It didn't take long to locate the torch - it had rolled off into a corner. It didn't turn on straight away so I hit it a couple of times against the palm of my hand.

The sudden light was blinding. By squinting through it I could make out several figures before me, two standing completely rigid in the centre of the room, the others bobbing and weaving around them. Demyx and Marluxia - the Dusks had them completely surrounded....


	3. Chapter 3

Before I could even blink, three of the Dusks had jumped on Demyx, dragging him to the floor again. He kicked out and dislodged one of them, but the other two pinned him down.

To my left, two of the Dusks were circling around Marluxia so quickly that my eyes couldn't follow them. He dispatched the first quickly with his scythe, but the second evaded his swings.

The last Dusk headed straight for me. I brought my hand up to lash out at it, when I realized that I was holding the flashlight. I wavered for a second, debating between getting a hit in on the lesser Nobody and leaving Demyx and Marluxia to fight in the dark again. In the second that I hesitated, the Dusk was on me.

Meanwhile Demyx had been struggling on the floor, but now managed to free his right hand, stretching it high in the air. It trembled slightly, and then his sitar appeared in his hand. He made it look so easy – I still had to really concentrate to summon my daggers, something that was impossible when I was faced with enemy attacks, which kind of defeated the point somewhat.

Demyx brought the butt of his sitar down and smashed it over the back of the Dusks' heads. While they were dazed, he kicked them off him and leapt to his feet. He held his palm straight out in front of him, and from it gushed a jet of water, which crashed into the Dusks and sent them flying into the far wall, where they vanished upon impact, leaving only a wisp of silvery smoke in their wake.

Marluxia stood perfectly still, watching the Dusk bob and weave around him. As it was about to launch an attack at him, he jerked his hand upwards slightly. As he did so, a small crack appeared in the ground, from which a tentacle-like vine began to grow. The Dusk didn't notice; it was too focused on Marluxia, trying to stay one step ahead of the Graceful Assassin. The vine crept up silently, suddenly wrapping itself around its silvery torso. Marluxia allowed himself a half-smile as he watched the vine tighten its grip around the Dusk, shaking as it squeezed the life out of the lesser Nobody.

This left only the one on top of me. Squirm and struggle as I might, it had me pinned fast to the floor, and in my panic, I found myself unable to call my weapon, or do anything else of any use whatsoever. Demyx had seen my difficulty, though, and headed straight over. Raising his palm, I expected him to summon his sitar, and use it to knock the Dusk off me before defeating it himself. To my horror, though, I realised what he was going to do a split second before it happened.

"Demyx, no!" I shouted, but it was too late, and the water gushed forth from his arm. The bulk of the stream hit the Dusk squarely in the back, and it trembled violently for a second before vanishing. Demyx didn't stop the flow immediately as the Dusk vanished, though, and the water spurted straight into me. The shiny fabric of my Organization Coat caught most of the water, but a good amount splashed in my face and soaked my hair.

I picked myself up and tried to brush off the excess water from the front of my coat. It dripped into a pool around my feet. "We cover up for you earlier when you were hiding in Vexen's lab and potentially contaminating a scientific experiment, and you pay me back by making me crawl through miles of air vents and soaking me in the face with freezing water. Thanks a lot, Demyx."

"You -- you were hiding him in the lab?!" Marluxia spluttered.

I nodded. "Sorry, Marly. I wish I'd handed him over to you when I had the chance; at least that way we would have been spared all this trouble."

Demyx was backing away from us, hands raised. "Aw, come on Anarix – the goat would have eaten through the cables whether I'd hidden in the lab or not. Besides, Vexie sure felt good getting one over on Marluxia."

To my left, Marluxia was turning a deep crimson. "_You were hiding him in the lab?!_" he repeated.

"I did just get rid of that Dusk for you," Demyx pointed out. He was practically backed up against the wall by this time.

"I could have done it," I retorted, rather petulantly. To tell the truth, I found it a major blow to my confidence that I still found combat as a Nobody so difficult.

"Why did the Dusks attack us, anyway?" Marluxia asked.

"Vexen said that some sort of security system was activated when the power went out," I recalled. "That's the reason the doors won't open, even though the electricity doesn't power them. My guess would be that the Dusks are another part of the security. They detected our presence, thought we were invaders. It wouldn't surprise me if the others were being attacked by the lessers, too."

"So what do we need to do now? Apart from kill Demyx, I mean." Marluxia shot him a poisonous glance.

"Getting out of here would be a good start," I suggested. "Vexen said that the back-up power generator is in the basement, and that we need to go and sort things out down there. Oh, and while we're at it, I could really use a towel." I now shot Demyx a poisonous glance.

He didn't seem to notice. "We have a basement?" he asked and his eyes lit up. "We need to buy a pool table!"

"Demyx, if you don't shut up, get the power back to the castle and find that bloody goat, I will be using your head for the cue ball," Marluxia hissed.

"All right, all right, I get the point!" Demyx threw his hands up in defeat. "Turning a goat loose to rampage around the castle was a bad idea. I'll know for next time. Now, Petal-Boy, how do you suggest we get out of this room? The doors are locked down."

"Stand back," Marluxia said, holding his hand out flat in front of him, his palm towards the ground. I felt the ground beneath my feet tremble slightly, and just had enough time to steady myself against a wall before the floor in the centre of the room and near the door gave way to a mass of roots, writhing like a hundred snakes. At a flick of Marluxia's wrist, the tips of the roots began to extend, all the way to the doorway, where without any warning they drove suddenly upwards, blasting the door right out of its frame, and leaving in its place an archway of red roses.

"Shall we?" Marluxia gestured through the archway, and the three of us stepped through.


End file.
